Worst B-sides

The worst b-side is when they repeat the A side!

 

Dire Straits - Badges, Posters, Stickers, T-Shirts.

B side of Private Investigations, I guess all the effort went into side A

 

Well, B-sides are B-sides for a reason. Most people aren't the Beatles and put good songs as B-sides. If the song was too good to be a B-side then it became another A-side. It makes good sense not to waste a good song as a B-side.

 

The Beatles did have one total stiff as a B-side;

 

Surfer Girl/Little Deuce Coupe
Surfin' USA/Shut Down
I Get Around/Don't Worry Baby
Wouldn't It Be Nice/God Only Knows

etc.

Beach Boys singles with good songs on B-sides.

 

Blind Man (B-side of Back Off Boogaloo)

*Insert Yoko Ono song that was a B-side to a John Lennon song here*

 

"Sticky Sticky" - 'B' side of "1,2,3 Red Light" by The 1910 Fruitgum Company.


All the John Lennon 45's which feature a Yoko B-side.

 

I guess the rep in charge of the merch department must have written the b-side

 

ELO's habit of putting tracks from their previous albums on the flipside of singles during the mid to late 1970s instead of giving fans exclusive material is the reason I don't bother pursuing a full collection - most of the best variations can be found on the remasters as bonus content, not to mention the Afterglow and Flashback boxed sets. Earlier on, they actually produced a handful of songs for this very purpose, though only an instrumental version of In Old England Town (Boogie #2) and the slight Baby I Apologise have so far surfaced officially. Later things were different again, with many being all-new compositions, alternate mixes or leftovers from Secret Messages in its original double acetate configuration... the b-sides for Time in particular were more than comparable to their parent record!

 

Didn't radio copies usually have the A-side on both sides? I think more of these dodgy B-sides were included for royalty purposes-- The Steppenwolf one was credited to the whole band, so they would have made some good change if the record had been a hit.

 

It was worse when bands used to put current album tracks as B-sides. I remember 3 of the 4 UK singles off Queen's The Works had B-sides that were also from the album, and then another 2 were used as the B-side of the Thank God It's Christmas single the same year.

I'd rather hear a new track, even if it is a bit rubbish.

 

I love that song

 

Not A-side material, but I love it!

 

It makes better sense to release nothing but good songs (even if they're not commercial enough to be A -sides).

 

You just reminded me of something... I'm a massive Queen fan (and especially fond of the stereo panning tricks heard on various album songs), but their over-reliance on album track variations or extended mixes in particular during the mid to late '80s tested my limits of tolerance with that dreadful 12" mix of The Invisible Man that turned Brian May's already busy guitar solo into a noise I can only describe as a laser gun in battle with a strobe! Then again, when they did commit to genuinely new b-sides the results were hardly more worthwhile - the likes of Soul Brother and Lost Opportunity were hardly ever going to be considered the best deep cuts by even die hard enthusiasts, though I do admit the former is a great showcase of Freddie Mercury's vocal abilities!

 

I sorta like "Siamese Cat". It was an eternal embarrassment to John Cowsill though.

 

"Noolab Wolley" by The Yellow Balloon is fairly worthless. It's "Yellow Balloon" (the A-side) played and spelled backwards.

 

Seems like Summers has read Robert Heinleins' "Stranger In A Strange Land"

 

Not a bad B-side, but a quite uncommercial one: On the B-side of Johnny Rivers' "Secret Agent Man" is a great blues jam called "You Dig." To make sure the radio didn't play the "wrong" side, the timing on it just says "Over 4 minutes." Actually, it's 6:22. The late, great Larry Knechtel gets really down and dirty on Hammond organ on "You Dig." There's a 2:09 version on JR's album So You Want to Dance, but the long version is only available on the single (and on Youtube). A reversal of the trend in which longer versions of single edits are on the albums. Another unusual JR B-side was "Rewind Medley" on the flip side of (I think) "Baby, I Need Your Lovin'." It consisted of short excerpts from 5 of the songs from his Rewind album (complete with separation grooves) to entice people to buy the album. I'm surprised that didn't start a trend.

 

I always liked "Park Preserve" for the element of surprise. After the sweet and mellow sound of "Precious and Few" , I didn't think the band would be capable of rocking that hard. The guitar and organ solos aren't half bad.

 

The b-side of "They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!" from Napoleon XIV was the a-side played in reverse: "!aaaH-aH ,yawA eM ekaT oT gnimoC er'yehT"

 

I love Roxy Music, but Sultanesque, b side of Love Is the Drug. Ick.

 

Although some B-sides are bad, I also happen to think that some of them are the jewel in the crown for some artists. I feel Oasis kept all there best stuff to use as B-sides, as did The Jam. There's more, but I'll have to look through my music collection to find out who they are.

 

Good God
That's at least one of my oldest friends favourite recorded moment ever!

Just shame the whole 6.20 mix hasn't appeared officially.

 

Noel shot his bolt with the b-sides back in the day. Some of his best stuff ('Talk Tonight', 'Half The World Away', 'Masterplan') appeared as b-sides, he then ran out of good material before 'Be Here Now'.